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The App Store Turns 5: Its Top 10 Milestones

10 Milestones From the App Store's First Five Years

'I Am Rich' and the First Wave of App Bans

Within the first few weeks of the App Store's arrival, developers and users started to push the limits to figure out what was -- and what was not -- allowed in the App Store.

Perhaps the most infamous app from the earliest days of the App Store was "I Am Rich" -- a thoroughly useless app that sold for $999.99 and simply displayed an illustrated glowing orb. After intense media coverage and lots of hand-wringing, the app was pulled from the store in early August 2008.

"I Am Rich" wasn't the only noteworthy ban in the App Store's early history -- other apps, including the tethering app NetShare and a movie listing app called Box Office, were removed in the first month of the store's existence.

Images courtesy of Apple, iTunes

Android Market Launches, Offering First Competition

Apple got its first "competitor" to the fully-integrated mobile application store when Google launched the Android Market alongside the HTC G1 in October 2008. The original version of the Android Market (now known as the Google Play store) only supported free apps, with pay app support coming the following spring.

Although the App Store only had a three-month lead over the Android Market, it had substantially more apps for years to come. In fact, it was only with the global rise of Android, circa 2010 and into 2011, that app counts became more equal. As of 2013, the App Store still has more overall apps than Google Play -- but only by a very small margin.

Image courtesy of Google

'Ocarina' Shows Innovative Use of the Microphone

In November 2008, a small company called Smule released one of the most innovative and creative early apps for the platform: Ocarina. Ocarina was an app that turned the iPhone into a musical instrument -- specifically the flute-like instrument used by our favorite Hyrulian adventurer of Zelda fame. By blowing into the iPhone's microphone port and pressing buttons on the screen, users were able to create awesome tunes and play preset songs.

In the years since Ocarina, Smule has continued to make innovative apps, including I Am T-Pain, Magic Piano and more.

Image courtesy of Smule

Fart Apps Take Over ... Until Apple Steps In

In December 2008, the iPhone category that launched a thousand jokes entered the App Store: Fart apps. Apps such as iFart and Pull My Finger (two apps that actually sued each other over the name and genesis of the ideas -- yes, really) became some of the top-selling apps in the App Store.

In 2010, Apple started to purge some of the more useless apps from the App Store -- starting with apps dubbed too "sexy" or sexually suggestive for the platform and extending to more of the practical joke and fart apps towards the end of the year.

Google Voice and a New Wave of App Bans

In the summer of 2009, Apple started banning Google Voice apps from the App Store, purportedly for "duplicating features that the iPhone comes with." This ban didn't just extend to unofficial apps using the Google Voice API, it also extended to an official Google Voice app from Google.

The ban on "duplicate apps" also applied to web browsers and email clients. Those rules have since been relaxed -- although third-party apps still can't replace built-in apps for default functions -- and in November 2010, an official version of Google Voice entered the App Store.

Image courtesy of Google

Facebook 3.0 Ushers in a Wave of Social Apps

In August of 2009, Facebook launched version 3.0 of its iPhone app. Facebook 3.0 was a massive upgrade, brining the ability to upload videos (if you had an iPhone 3GS), the ability to RSVP and see events, support for Facebook Pages, the ability to make friend requests, the ability to like posts and photos, the ability to make friend requests and more.

Facebook 3.0 was a watershed release because it brought most -- if not all -- of the best Facebook features to the iPhone and was one of the first examples of an official social networking app that felt like a real mobile citizen. The app was fast, reliable and smooth.

The grid-layout for Facebook 3.0 would also be copied by many, many app designers for years to come.

The 3.0 series of Facebook apps lasted for more than two years, until Facebook 4.0 was released with iPad support. At this point, Facebook for iPhone was no longer a fast or stable app experience. Built on HTML5 rather than the native code of version 3.0, Facebook for iPhone went from being one of the platform's best social offerings to one of its worst.

In August 2012, Facebook rewrote Facebook for iPhone, shifting back to native code. In many respects, Facebook for iOS 5.0 was a return to the glory days of Facebook for iPhone 3. In April, Facebook 6.0 for iOS debuted with support for Chat heads and the new News Feed.

Images courtesy of Facebook

Tweetie 2 Brings Pull-to-Refresh to the Masses

In October 2009, the sequel to the most popular iPhone Twitter app at the time -- Tweetie -- was released. Tweetie 2.0 was a monumental release for a number of reasons but one UI convention really sticks out: Pull-to-refresh.

Created by Loren Brichter, the pull-to-refresh UI mechanism for loading new tweets immediately became one of the most-used and most-copied UI paradigms in mobile app development.

Despite being a separate paid app, Tweetie 2 was a massive success -- so much so that Twitter realized it couldn't build a better app, so it bought Tweetie in April 2010, rebranding Tweetie 2 into the official (and free) Twitter iPhone app. Pull-to-refresh remains in the official Twitter app to this day and the company retains a patent on pull-to-refresh (although the company promises only to use the patent defensively, that is, if other companies sue it over the patent first).

Even Apple added support for pull-to-refresh in its Mail app in iOS 6. When even the mothership copies your invention, you know you've done something right.

Loren Brichter no longer works at Twitter, but he continues to shake-up the iOS ecosystem, most recently with his addictive (and popular) game, Letterpress.

Images courtesy of Atebits/Twitter

Path and Twitter for iPad Introduce the Slide-to-Navigation Gesture

Speaking of Loren Brichter, while still at Twitter, the developer pioneered another common mobile application pattern -- the slide-to-navigation gesture.

Sliding from the right or left edge of an app opens a menu or further navigational structure. Originally introduced for Twitter for iPad, the gesture was further refined with the first version of Path for iOS.

The gesture remains popular -- appearing in apps such as Google+, Gmail, Spotify, Facebook, Rdio, YouTube and Yahoo Weather. The gesture is also commonly used on Android and has even become a key interface element of BlackBerry 10.

Loren Brichter, we salute you!

Images courtesy of Path, Twitter

Apple Replaces Google Maps ... the Fall Out Is Immediate

When Apple announced that it was replacing Google Maps with its own concoction in iOS 6, we were cautiously optimistic. The 3D renders looked beautiful and the promise of turn-by-turn navigation was exciting.

In December 2012, Google, the former data provider of Apple's built-in maps app, released a new, native version of Google Maps for iOS. It quickly shot up the download charts.

Almost a year after the Apple Maps disaster, data and accuracy are improving. The question becomes -- will users ever be willing to give it another chance?

Image courtesy of Apple

Apple Announces iOS 7 With a Massive Visual Difference for Developers

At the five year mark, the App Store is starting to feel more comfortable and predictable -- which is exactly why Apple's latest move is important.

In June 2013, Apple officially unveiled iOS 7 and with it, a brand new look and feel.

Tim Cook calls iOS 7 "the biggest change to iOS since the original iPhone" and he's right. Every single crevice of the OS has been redesigned -- from the colors, to the menus, to the icons to the typography.

On Monday, Apple started celebrating five years of the App Store with some free app promotions and a look at highlights over the last half-decade. Although that list was good, it missed some important milestones.

After all, the arrival of Angry Birds and Instagram are important, but who can forget the app "I Am Rich" or the deluge of fart apps in the App Store? And speaking of app bans, remember when Apple refused to let Google Voice apps in the store?

Loren Brichter, who most recently made waves as the developer of the award-winning iOS game Letterpress is recognized twice in our list for his work in creating not one but two now-ubiquitous mobile design patterns: Pull-to-refresh for Tweetie 2 (which later became the basis for Twitter for iPhone) and the slide-in navigation menus with Twitter for iPad.

Other highlights include Ocarina for iPhone, the disaster that was Apple Maps, and the seminal release of Facebook 3.0 for iPhone.

I started writing about technology professionally in 2007 and have covered the App Store since the very beginning (in fact, I was writing and covering the jailbreak app ecosystem that existed before the App Store officially launched). Looking back at the last five years has been kind of like looking at a time machine of my professional career.

Thinking back about the last five years, what amazes me the most is how quickly the ecosystem and the community around iOS apps took off. The store launched with only 500 titles but that figure grew — and grew quickly.

App pricing changed almost overnight. In the beginning, $9.99 apps were the norm — though free apps existed too. Within weeks, however, the so-called "race-to-the-bottom" started in earnest. Today, aside from in-app purchases for subscription content, its hard to find apps that are above $4.99 that don't have a very specific purpose or a professional aim.

The rules about what is — and what is not — allowed in the App Store started almost immediately as well. It would be more than two years before Apple would finally release developer review guidelines, but even today, the rules of what is acceptable and what isn't in the App Store remains somewhat arbitrary.

Even though the Android Market (now called Google Play) launched just three months after the App Store, it took nearly three years for the App Store to face any real competition. It's true that most major apps are available on both iOS and Android, but even in 2013, it's not uncommon for apps to debut on iOS first.

If you had asked me a month ago about the state of the App Store and the iOS developer ecosystem, I would have probably said that at this point, it's a well-oiled machine and that it has become very easy to predict what kind of apps achieve commercial success. Then, Apple unveiled iOS 7.

Suddenly, everything is different. The new look of iOS 7 makes existing iOS apps not designed for the new system look and feel out of place. Marco Arment said it best when he wrote that "Apple has set fire to iOS" — adding that "anyone can march right into an established category with a huge advantage if they have the audacity to be exclusively modern."

I think he's exactly right. Who knows, maybe five years from now, we'll be looking at the start of a third era of iOS apps. Over the last five years, I've written millions of words about the App Store and mobile apps in general. I know I intend to keep writing millions more.

Let us know what you consider the most significant milestones of the last five years of the App Store in the comments.

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